Vexillology

Words you may not have encountered.

Vexillology is the study of the history, symbolism and usage of flags. Do people make up words to justify their own activities? Is there a word for the study of blogging? If not (a) why not and (b) let's think of one.

Vexillology is derived from the Latin word vexillum, which refers to a kind of square flag which was carried by Roman cavalry. So we need a Latin word for blog. There isn't one, which I suppose means there were no Roman bloggers. Although you could argue that Pliny the Younger was a blogger, so I'm going to say that Plinyology is the study of blogging. Mr Google gives no results for plinyology, so I think I must be the first. Does that make me a neologist? I think that may also be a new word. So that's Nigel 2 Dictionaries 0; I'll get on to the OED in the morning.

The December 2020 updates to the OED include deliverology, apparently coined by British civil servants as a humorous, spuriously scientific sounding name for the process of successfully (or unsuccessfully) implementing policy and achieving goals in government.

Anyway, I'm interested in flags, so that makes me a vexillophile. I'm also interested in words, which makes me a logophile. dictionary.com calls me a word nerd. I'm OK with that. What else? I'm interested in jigsaw puzzles, as you know. Apparently that makes me a dissectologist. 

Who knew? More of this stuff throughout 2021.